Any given day we take in thousands of ads, texts, and broadcasts, and we start to wonder if we’re even listening to the right voice. James 1:19–26 says be quick to hear, slow to speak, and doers of the word—not hearers only. Someone around you is already listening to yours.
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Harvester Christian Church, how we doing this morning? Yeah. And there’s an energy to the room today, as you’ve noticed with all of our students everywhere, praising God and leading all worship. What I love to see is our students, not just getting the chance to be up here and lead in worship, but also to lead the church in worship. And you guys not sitting and watching, but you get to participate in that. It’s an incredible sight to see.
Oh, hey, I have a little bit of history here at Harvester. I want to let you know about it. My parents were attending the church when they had me as a baby. So I have been at Harvester for my entire life. Like this place is home to me. I got to experience the nursery and the kindergarten classrooms. I got to experience the elementary rooms, was able to experience the middle school and the high school program. I stayed local for college, was able to be here in college as well. And I’ve been working on the student ministry team for a little over 10 years now and have been in the high school role for some time of that as well. And I love the students we have here. I love the opportunity I have to get to share the gospel to our students here. But it does get a little awkward at times, if I’m going to be honest. Being here that long, that means people have experienced the lifelong things of Sam, okay?
For instance, like people like Doyle and volunteers that have been in our nursery for a long time will be like, I remember whenever we were changing your diaper. We could move past that one, right? Things like that get brought up time and time again. But it is a joy to be here. What we’ve been telling our students the entire year, this past year is this: to become like Jesus, you must listen to the voice of the good shepherd. Simple as that. Nonstop, we say it time and time again in our youth nights, that to become like Jesus, you must listen to the voice of the good shepherd. And it’s something that I have loved and cherished being a part of the past year and communicating to our students saying, hey, to become like Jesus, you must listen to his voice.
I love getting to work with junior high students and watching a student come in at sixth grade and watching them go all the way through our ministry or part of our ministry. And by the time they’re in 12th grade graduating, feeling confident, and this is true because it just happened, feeling confident in our senior class as they are going out into the world to then be the hands and feet of Jesus, because they know how to hear the voice of Jesus and they know what to do with it. It’s an honor and it’s a privilege.
Another reason I love working with our students is because there are some major unknowns working with students, okay? And I’m talking to my students here as well. I never know what’s gonna happen when we’re in the room with them. I don’t know who they’re bringing, what they’re bringing, or what they’re carrying in for the night, right? There’s a lot that comes with that. Ask any of our middle and high school volunteers. You never know what’s gonna happen at a youth night at Harvester.
Let me tell you a story of one of these times, okay? It’s a little bit early in the service. We’re actually getting ready. Our students lead through the services themselves. So we have a student band, student tech, students do the welcome and stuff like that. So they’re prepping for it. And I have a student out in the parking lot setting up and getting things ready there. He’s playing basketball at the time. So he’s playing basketball, he’s doing his thing. And he comes in a little bit earlier than he normally does. So I’m like, okay, what’s going on here? Hands behind his back. Okay, what are you bringing with you to youth group today? He walks in, walks up to me, and he slowly moves his arms around. I’m like, I see God. And he presents to me a living live turtle that he had found in the parking lot and decided it is time to bring this turtle to youth group. Okay, has anyone brought a turtle to church before? Anyone? No, right?
That’s not where the story ends, okay? He brings the turtle and he goes past me and he goes to our new student check-in. He goes and he starts typing in a name on the new student check-in. Gives this turtle an address, a phone number, presses print, a tag spits out. Takes the tag, puts on the shell, and he brings the turtle to large youth group time. This turtle’s worshiping with us. This turtle gets to hear the word. This turtle then goes to small group time, which I’m sure you asked the leaders was a very productive and great conversation that night.
That turtle didn’t just come to one high school night. It came back a second week and a third week in a row. And I don’t know where the turtle is today, but I can guarantee you this. I’m gonna see that turtle in heaven one day. I know that to be the case and that to be true.
Listen, students carry a lot, whether it’s trying to figure out how to check in a turtle to a youth group or the voices to listen to in this world or what to do at school or how to act whenever they’re going to college or what job do I apply for? How do I even try out for this team? Like there’s a lot that goes on in the lives of our students and that happens all the time. And let’s face it, for us as adults, there’s a lot that goes on in our lives too. We experience a lot and might not be trying to figure out how to check a turtle into church, but it might be, hey, what voice do I listen to?
In a world where at any given day, we could intake 3,000 to 10,000 advertisements, voices and broadcasts being sent to us, how do we navigate what to listen to? Between social media and billboards and texts from people, conversations with neighbors, conversations with family, podcasts we listen to, shows we watch, movies we take in. There’s a lot that comes at us as people in this world.
And I start to wonder at times this, and I don’t know if you ever have either, is am I listening to the right voice? There’s a lot of voices. Am I listening to the right one? And what I want to dive in today is not necessarily the answer to that question. Because if I were to ask you the answer to that question is, whose voice should you listen to? The answer is Jesus. Right, you guys got it. Like, I don’t want to dive into that necessarily, but I do want to go and answer this question: Who is listening to my voice? And is my voice one worth broadcasting out to people? Who is listening to your broadcast? Who is tuning into your station? And is the voice that you’re putting off one worth following?
There are so many voices and broadcasts in the world today. And when we ask that question, who is listening to mine? It becomes a little more real. And I’m not talking about who is on your social media followers lists. I’m not talking about how many people are under you at work. No, I’m talking about the people that you encounter day to day. You know, the few that are around your dinner table. Maybe at work, it’s the person you’re rubbing shoulders with right next to you, okay? How is your voice, how’s your broadcast impacting them? And you might be sitting here thinking, Sam, that’s great and all, like, but I don’t necessarily have a voice to give off to someone. That’s false, you do.
I have a one-year-old daughter, not even two yet. And let me tell you, she’s got a voice that is worth listening to. We know that to be true, because when she speaks at home, we listen. There are things that she says, I’m like, oh yeah, okay. What do you need? Let me help you out. Like, she has a voice. And when her friends are over, the other one-year-olds, they start to mimic each other. They do what each other do, right? Let me tell you a story of her voice.
We’re sitting at dinner one night. We have green beans, poppy seed chicken. It’s a family favorite at our household. We’re getting ready to eat. We say our prayer, about to dive in. And one-year-old, Ezra James is like, eh, this isn’t for me. I don’t want this meal. It looks great and all. But she sits there and she says, popsicle. And the word popsicle changed our entire evening. Let me tell you this.
I got a four-year-old and a five-year-old boy as well. And they’re sitting at the table. You know what? That sounds pretty good. Like these green beans look good, but I like what she’s saying. Her voice started to change the way the dinner table acted. Before we knew it, popsicle, popsicle, popsicle, is chanting at our table. We stuck to it. We did popsicles after dinner, I’ll let you know. But it happened. She had a voice that was worth following. And if Ezra James has a voice and her brothers are following it, my question to you is, you do have a voice. How are you using your voice for others to see it?
And as Christ followers, as people that find ourselves in this room, we need to have a voice that is worth following. Whether you know it or not, your voice has an impact on the people around you and we need to know what to do with it.
Today, we’re gonna be diving into the scripture in James. If you have your Bibles, open up to James. And this is gonna kind of guide our conversation on our voice, on our broadcast, what we present to other people and how we should present it to other people as well. And James chapter one is where we’re gonna land.
James is someone that is worth listening to, okay? Everyone in the scriptures is, but James is someone that I read through this and look a little bit into who James is and say, okay, his voice is one worth following. Scholars say James is the half brother of Jesus. I have a brother. I know my brother’s moves. Like we grew up together. I know how he’s feeling. I know how he’s acting. I know what’s going on inside of his life. The same is true here, I’m sure. Like James has this relationship with his brother where he knows what’s going on in his life and his brother is Jesus. Like that’s someone worth following. He’s close to Jesus, okay?
He’s also writing this letter to us as Christ followers. A lot of our New Testament letters and books are written to a specific group of people, to a specific church, to a specific city. This is written for us. It’s written for everyone, all Christ followers, something worth tuning into. James was also a leader and a peacemaker in the church as well as the city of Jerusalem. Here’s what he has to say about living out who God has called us to be. In James 1, verse 19, it says this:
“Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Right off the bat, hearing through some of this stuff he’s talking about, I am like, I relate to this. I’ve heard these words before. Has anyone heard these words of being quick to hear and slow to speak? Anyone in the room heard this? Yeah, whether it’s through the scriptures or through mom talking to you, right? Like we’ve heard these words before. Like, hey, let’s listen to this and let’s be slow to speak. And he continues on and he talks about the anger and to stay away from the anger. And that’s hard to do at a dinner table when three kids are chanting Popsicle, by the way, but it’s what we’re called to do in this moment as well as that anger does not produce the righteousness of God, right?
But inside this, what we see time and time again is that we are being called to be a little different, to be called to be set apart if you would. This is maybe counter to what culture brings to us today. A lot of times when you’re in a situation and a problem or something arises, what is the first response that culture sets? Like, if you want something, speak up, right? If you want something, say it loud, say it clear, say it now so we understand and you could get at it whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve, whatever it is you’re trying to grab.
Culture constantly will tell us that and these things are kind of opposite of that where we need to be slow to speak and quick to hear. So you’d be set apart from the world, set apart from the ads, from the false voices, the narratives, the things that are driving culture today. It is important that we read this and know, okay, we need to be slow to speak and quick to hear what’s being thrown at us.
Inside our youth ministry, some of the times when a kid walks in, a conversation I’ll hear inside the lobby is like, hey, yeah, my team’s built different. They’re talking about like a sporting team. Like, this is why my team is better than the other teams. I have some soccer players and they’re like, yeah, we’re built different, Sam. I’m like, okay, like what makes you built different than the other high school soccer players inside St. Charles County, right? Well, what makes us different is that we actually have started practice two months ago, okay? What makes us built different is we are getting up earlier than them and having longer practices, okay? What makes us different is that we’ve been a unit, we’ve been together for five years. Okay, like all these things do check out. Like, yeah, that’s what makes you built different.
And what I think James is saying here and one at the very beginning at 19 through this 21 is that, hey, Christ followers need to be built different. When the world is saying to do one thing, we need to listen to these words and say, hey, let’s take a step back. Let’s be quick to hear and slow to speak. We need to be built different.
Romans talks about this a little bit as well in Romans 12 too. It says this, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and what is acceptable and perfect.” Not to be conformed, to renew your mind, to be different than what the world has thrown upon us today.
James 1:22 continues on by saying this, “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself.” Stopping right there, like this to me, when I read through this passage before presenting it today, I’m like, this is the bread and butter of what James is trying to communicate. Like this is what it’s all about. These things he’ll explain the why and the how, but this to me is what he’s trying to get across. And the words inside here obviously have some pretty big weight. Hearers and doers are big words that pop out to me.
The word hearer is important because the Hebrew word that this originated from is the word Shema. And Shema comes up time and time again inside the Old Testament, but also as we continue to read on in the New Testament. And it’s not just hearing the word as an intake of what’s to come, but it’s also obeying what the word says. It’s not just hear what God has to offer, but it’s to act upon what he has called us to do.
And this word Shema comes up in this translation here that we see. It’s to have an action and not just to receive it or take an intake, it’s to do something about it, to respond to what God has called us to do. And that’s why I think that this, that Christ’s followers are changed people. Because if we hear the word of God on a Sunday morning through scripture, through a podcast or whatever it may be, we need to do what it says. And it’s Christ’s followers that should invoke something upon us. And we should be changed people in molding our lives after who God has called us to be.
A lot of times when we’re at the baptistry, getting ready for a baptism, you’ll hear this conversation or sometimes leading up to it is, hey, I’m ready to commit my life to Jesus. I understand it all. And this is the end all, like I’m ready to cross that finish line. Well, like a lot of times, you know, we’ll look at that and be like, this is the starting line, if you will, right? Like I’m not at a spot where once I’m baptized, like I’ve got it all done. Like I’m still at the spot where I am constantly hearing what God has to say to me. And now how do I try to act this out and to obey what he says to do? It’s something that we see nonstop. To Shema, to listen and do, to hear and obey. We’re changed people always moving forward.
23 says this, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man who looks intently at his natural face into a mirror. For he looks at himself and he goes away and at once he forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perceives being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed and is doing.”
Supports that, like we should be living out that changed life. If I were to take this passage and say, all right, let’s put it in a Harvester’s context. I would say this, this should not happen. You should not come into this room, hear what God’s doing, hear the messages, worship Jesus. And then on your way out to the exits, whether it’s at the South Lobby, the North Lobby, kids mystery check-in, chapel, instantly forgetting everything that we just did in this room, right? That’s the Harvester context of it.
Don’t come into this room and hear what God’s doing and what he has for you in your life. And here’s who he is for you. And then walk out the doors and say, I’m gonna put on a new front, go back to my old self and live in that. Like we are living as a changed people that are molded after who God has called us to be constantly changing, to be more like the image of Jesus.
And it’s really important to know that, and those two words, hearing and doing, like both of those hold some very high value. Like you can’t go and do the work of God without hearing what God has called you to do, right? Both of them hold some very, very, very high value.
Kind of wraps up this passage by saying this in James 1:26. He says this, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but he deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the orphans and the widows and their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
Man, Christ calls us to love, not just the people around us, but to love all people. We should be built different. We should be changed people, but we should also be fully devoted to who God is. Fully devoted to who God has called us to be and fully devoted to God. And that’s what this is describing. Not just saying one thing on a Sunday, then leaving and forgetting it, but no, loving all people the way Christ did and Christ reflected.
It’s easy to do this when we’re all together inside a room, all pushing towards the charge of the same exact message, right? But when you get out on your own, when you’re siloed in this situation and you’re by yourself to stand up for who God is, it gets a little bit harder. It does, I know that, I understand that.
He’s called us to stay unstained from the world, to be fully devoted to who God is. Not just the people that are like us, not just the people inside our community groups that we know and love, but for all people. Even the people who aren’t devoted to God.
It’s not just devoting it to him, you’re listening, you’re obeying, you’re doing what he has called us to do. And Christ actually paints a very, very clear picture of what that looks like. You know, he came into this world, God sent him into this world. He was built different, right? He had different attributes about him. He lived a different life than the people around him.
He was changed and always changing and loving who God was and praying and finding moments to go and be with God. He definitely was fully devoted to God. When God told him and called him into this moment, whether he knew it all at once as a little baby or he grew into that, I don’t know how it all worked, right? But he became fully devoted to God.
Painting a beautiful picture for you, painting a beautiful picture for me of what it looks like to be devoted to God, giving up his own life for each of us. We have the opportunity to model our lives after that and to live a life worth calling. And it is one that is worth calling.
I think we could all agree that the primary voice, number one voice we should listen to is the voice of God, right? And we should emulate our lives and broadcast a message out that reflects that. But there are lots of other voices inside this world and we know that. And not all of them are bad. Don’t get me wrong, not all the other voices are bad.
One of them that’s not necessarily all bad is the voice, the broadcasts of Cardinals Radio Network. That’s a pretty good voice to listen to, right? KMOX, Cardinals Broadcast, I love that station. I actually find myself almost at times I’d rather listen to the radio call of the game than watching the call of the game. I think that this is because growing up, that’s what I did.
Growing up, I had a bedtime as all kids do, right? And I tried to watch as much baseball as I could, but at a certain time I’d have to go to bed. And my parents would say, hey, at this time, go brush your teeth, get your pajamas on. And when you go to bed, you don’t have to turn off baseball. You could turn on the radio, flip on KMOX, listen to Mike Shannon as he calls the Cardinals games. I’m like, sweet, this is awesome. Like I don’t have to go to bed yet.
So I would go to my room, I’d flip on the game. And I remember like actively listening to these games at night, whether it be a big playoff game or just a typical game where we’re beating the Cubs down. You know, those are great and all. Yeah, but it was different, right? KMOX, the broadcast network was built different. It truly was.
At its original time, it was one of the biggest networks in the area and being centralized in Missouri, was able to broadcast its voice out to 40 states around it. And this wasn’t just a weak broadcast that would somewhat get to different people and be staticky. No, it was built different. It was strong and it was clear.
When you turn on the radio, what would you hear? You would hear a clear broadcasted message. Other radio stations were wishy-washy at times, but this one was different. KMOX, it was a change station. As time went on, they grew into their spot and they were never fully there crossing the finish line. Always adapting, always learning how to broadcast out the message of baseball to more people.
They’re also fully devoted. Every game, every night. The station didn’t say, hey, tonight, you know what? We’re gonna take a break from baseball and we’re gonna just do a whole night of infomercials. Right? No, they were fully devoted to the game. Fully devoted to baseball. You knew what you were gonna get when you tuned in.
They didn’t take a night off to go hang out with someone else or say, hey, we’re not gonna do radio tonight. We’re just gonna take the night off. They didn’t forget who they were. They were there every single weekend.
As Christ followers, we should also be the same. We should be built different. We should be changing into who Jesus is forming us to and you need to be fully devoted to him and everything. You see, in a world where people can hear, see, and get whatever message and broadcasts and voice that they want at any given time with any different outcome, as we learned last week, what’s your broadcast going to be? What’s your voice gonna look like to the people around you? How are you gonna be set apart as a Christ follower?
Are you just gonna listen? Just gonna come and intake the word or are you gonna shema? Are you gonna respond to what God has called you to do? You see, I have a, working with students, I get to hear a lot of the broadcast in a student’s life or the voice of a student’s life or what some people think. Hey, if I tune into a student’s broadcast, here’s what I would hear and hear what they think is gonna be coming out.
And some of these times it’s true. Some of the broadcasts and narratives people think are true, but also in my seat, I get to see what students have been up to. And it’s not just in an environment that we see on a youth group night, but no, it’s something that they’re bringing into their everyday lives and it’s special.
Let me tell you a little bit about it. I’m scanning through the different broadcasts of the world. I’ve heard these high school learners say and do, listen and obey what God has called them to. Whether it’s the constant glorification of explicit music and explicit language and students and teenagers using that, all that might be happening.
What I’m able to experience through our students is the opposite of that. I see students every single week using their voice, using their broadcast to lift up who Jesus is and to glorify his name in a Christ-centered way, with Christ-centered language.
On a given Sunday or Wednesday night at our youth group, I’m not seeing kids closed off in their own area, but they’re looking around for other people who are walking into the building to say, hey, I noticed you. Come, enjoy who we are and see what’s happening inside this community. Come welcome into the family of God. Open arms to newcomers, not standoffish, only worried about themselves.
I’ve heard and had conversations of sexual immorality and pornography addictions time and time again inside of our student ministry. And it’s a real problem. There are real sins and struggles these students experience, but they’re not just experiencing them and trying to figure it out on their own. They’re using the voice of God to guide their steps. They’re having conversations with a life group leader who says, hey, I don’t know all the answers, but follow me as I follow Jesus.
And I guarantee you, it’s gonna be at a better spot than we are. And they’re hearing what God’s called them to, and they’re hearing the freedom they’re called into. And they’re not just listening it, but they’re obeying it and they’re acting on it and they’re living it out.
I’ve seen accounts on Instagram be used for all sorts of different things and to tear people down. I’ve seen comments on Instagram tearing people down. But what I’ve seen recently is a group of students creating accounts to not just bring glory to their name, but to bring glory to God’s name. They’re using it to share the gospel and they’re sharing it and they’re posting it. And friends are posting, they’re reaching out and saying, hey, this is amazing, this is great. Let’s talk about it. They’re sending it to friends who have never heard about who Jesus is. They’re hearing what God has called them to do. And then they’re acting on it. They’re obeying it.
They’re living it out. That’s how you know their voice is one worth following. And let me tell you this church, it’s not just for them, it’s for me, it’s for you. It’s what Christ has embodied, it’s what Christ has shown us and whether you’ve accepted Jesus into your lives yet or maybe you’re thinking about it or that decision’s to come or it’s something you’re practicing daily, here’s what I know to be true.
That when we hear what God has to say and we broadcast it into our daily lives, our voice is one worth following. When you hear what God has to say through scripture, through worship, through a podcast you’re listening to, through a student’s worship leader moment, through what Nekoma says on a Sunday morning, when you listen to what God has to say because he does speak through those moments and you broadcast that into your daily lives and the people that are right in your community get to see that, they know that your voice is one worth following.
You see, KMOX was a station for all. It taught me and others alike the simple game of baseball every night. It’s not a show about politics or trying to sell an ad but it was a platform simply for baseball, baseball. The love of Jesus is the same, it’s for all. Whether you’re a little kid sneaking in your room listening to the radio or it’s your first time inside this building and you have your life figured out, the love of Jesus is for all. Will you answer his call? Will you tune your broadcast to him and glorify him so that others may see that as well?
Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for who you are and the way that you’ve been moving and the way that you’ve been speaking to people inside this church for years and years and years. God, I know that’s still to come as well as we have so many students on the rise, on fire after who you are and so many adults that get to experience that as well on any given Sunday or anything that happens at Harvester.
God, I pray that you continuously guide with your Spirit these situations where we’re able to come and encounter who you are on a weekend and get to become a little bit more like you by listening to your voice and going back out into the world and serving and showing that to other people inside of our own voice and our own broadcast.
God, I pray that today as we all leave this room that we won’t forget who we are. We won’t forget what we look like. We won’t discount what you’ve called us to be, but instead we’ll tune in to the broadcast of who you are so that others may see that and be glorified too. I ask this in your name, amen.
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